Google loves blogs. It’s a pretty well-known fact that Google tends to give high rankings to blogs for a number of different reasons. They are full of keywords, updated regularly, generally have simple coding (i.e., lack things search engines don’t index), and are full of links both in and out.

Once your blog does get indexed by Google, you’ll be amazed which search terms start to yield your site in the results pages. Here are a few that I found particularly interesting for this blog. Thanks to the great Wordpress extension Wassup, which tracks these searches (among other things) in real-time. Keep in mind that my listing may move up and down in the listings at any time, so if the link doesn’t immediately point you to the right page, look up and down one page and you’ll find me.

I’ll update this page as new stuff comes in. Please note that these links and results were accurate as of the posting date I mention, but are likely different by now (either higher or lower).

As of August 4, 2008…

Turns out that I’m even more of the definitive expert about Google than what I originally thought. Turns out if you’ve never used one of these mysterious “search engines” that seem to know everything about everything and you want some answers, you come to this very blog.

“where to put in search terms“: Google, page 1, result 1. Any you thought you were computer illiterate. This person doesn’t even know where to begin to search. However, they did manage to figure out where to put in search terms, so then why are they searching for where to put in search terms? It’s all very confusing.

In other case, where this blog is a definitive resource for an important issue…

“weirdest things people look up on google“: Google, page 1, result 6. Two things make me smile about this, as having this site show up for this search phrase can mean one of two things. One, this site does a great job showing the world what the weirdest things people search for on Google. We’re experts on weird in other words. Certainly, our posts about Giant Sea Spiders or Pooka might make this accurate. The second thing it could mean is even better…we could be one of the weirdest things that people look up on Google. The sixth weirdest thing to be precise. Outstanding.

As of July 22, 2008…

An interesting search term showed up the other day from Google and I had to include it. It was a referral to my post about giant sea spiders, still one of my most popular:

“what are some things about antarctica“: Google page 1, result 2. I really feel sorry for the teacher who has to read the piece of crap report that some 5th graders is going to turn in tomorrow. This term shows the huge amount of effort that he or she is willing to put into the report. “Just tell me anything about Antarctica. I don’t care what it is, I’m just going to copy and paste anyway. Just make sure it’s a few things…preferably on a single site so I don’t have to look through 3 or 4 results. That would kill me.”

As of July 17, 2008...

I noticed a big surge of traffic after my posting about Dateline MSNBC’s rip off of the Today Show’s topic from 3 months ago regarding missingmoney.com. It was a bunch of organic search traffic from both Google and Yahoo! Yahoo’s not a big fan of this blog for some reason, but it decided to index me this time.

“Dateline MSNBC” : Google, page 3, result 3, not bad, not great, but still a couple hundred clickthroughs.

“Dateline MSNBC” : Yahoo, page 2, result 6, also not bad, but interesting all the sites that I jumped ahead of.

What’s more interesting is what you get if you search for “Dateline MNBC” (which many people do, which is classic and shows that a lot of people don’t really know the name of this network, which you have to say never made any sense. NBC and Microsoft (MS)? Come on.)

“Dateline MNBC” : Google, page 1, result 5.

“Dateline MNBC” : Yahoo, page 1, result 3, right behind two MSNBC sites. Classic.

No idea why I index so well for this misspelling, as it isn’t in my post.

As of July 8, 2008…

Like every pop culture related blog, I’ve had to write about Lindsey Lohan at one point. Little did I know that would yield this prominent search position and it would become the single biggest search engine referral term on Everyone But You:

“lindsey lohan hot” : Google, page1, result 1…that’s right, Google thinks that I determine whether or not Lindsey is hot. Check it out. Classic.

That’s all for now…I’ll update as some more searches come in.

As of June 30, 2008…

My post wondering about why some seemingly random TV stations showed up in Google Trends yields two interesting results. Bottom line: if you’re looking for the Doppler radar maps on either WPTZ or Capital News 9, don’t try Google. If you’re reading this trying to see if a tornado is about to hit your house, you’re on the wrong page. Keep looking…quickly.

“WPTZ Doppler“: Google, page 1, result 1 (yep…first listing)

“Capital News 9 Doppler“: Google, page 1, result 1 (again, yep…they’ve got to get some Internet dudes at these radio stations)

Updated April 30, 2008…

My post about the Mega Millions Winning Numbers proved to be a popular one for search engines.

“future mega millions winning numbers” : Google, page 1

“mega numbers” : Google, page 1

“my favorite mega millions winning numbers” : Google, page 1, result 1, an odd search, but I’ll take the ranking

“next predicted mega millions numbers” : Google, page 1, I love that people think someone can predict the winning numbers. Why would this successful prognosticator have a blog?

My post about Giant Sea Spiders being discovered in Antarctica was also a big hit with Google. This one went worldwide. It’s also the page most viewed all-time on this blog with almost 1000 page views:

“sea monsters comparative” : Google Images Mexico, page 1

“sea spiders” : Google Images, page 2

“giant things” : Google Canada, page 2, how great is this? Giant Things. I love Canada.

“undiscovered things” : AIM (AOL) Image Search (technically, not Google, but “Enhanced by Google”), page 1, of note: this posting about giant sea spiders is the 6th most undiscovered thing in the universe according to AOL

My post about Earth Day Games was also well covered by Google. I think this time I’ll give the credit to a lack of content in the world about “Earth Day Games.” Imagine that.

“earth day fun adults” : Google, page 1

“good games for everyone but only kids” : Google UK, page 1, also, this wins the award for oddest search term

My post about the CMT Awards yielded some surprising Google search results placement.

“Kelly Pickler” : Google Images, page 11, what great about this one is the picture that Google decided to match with Kelly Pickler. Even if you’re not a fan, you know this ain’t right…

“CMT Music Awards” : Google Images, page 3

My post about Zinc Countertops had some interest. Again, I’ll chalk this up to a lack of content:

“autopsy table“: Google Images, page 2

“Australian autopsy labs” : Google Images Australia, page 1, of note, I’m sure the homeowners who spent I’m sure tens of thousands to remodel their kitchen are happy to know that it shows up as a great example of an autopsy table/lab.

“photos of zinc countertops” : Google, page 3

My post about Buddy Hackett, which also referenced Gene Simmons, had the Gene Simmons image picked up by numerous version of Google. Again, a worldwide phenomenon:

“gene simmons kiss makeup” : Google Images Cananda, page 2, thanks again, Canada

In my post about Jerry Seinfeld crashing his 1967 Fiat BTM, I noted that no one seemed to have a picture of it online anywhere. There were a few likely candidates, but it was amazing to me that no one seemed to have a definitive picture. I took my best guess at which image represented Seinfeld’s car and went with it. Noting in the alt tag “Seinfeld’s 1967 Fiat BTM…maybe.” That was good enough for Google and I got (and still get) hundreds of hits for that one image from all around the world.

“1967 Fiat BTM” : Google Images, page 1, image 1, according to the world, my blog has the definitive picture of this car…scary, considering I still don’t know if it’s the right image.

“1967 Fiat BTM” : Google Images India, page 1, image 1

“1967 Fiat BTM Sports Car” Google Images, page 1, image 1

I once wrote a post about weapons manufacturer Fabrique Nationale fully expecting to get gunned down by one of their products in retaliation. It hasn’t happened yet, and my post has gone onto dominate the search term to the chagrin of the Fabrique Nationale management team.

“fabrique nationale” : Google, page 2

“fabrique national” : Google Belgium, page 2, yep, there’s a Belgian version too

“fabrique nationale pistols” : Google, page 1, result 5

You can also search by the products that I referenced in my post and get right to this site. I’m sure this is not what their e-commerce or PR teams had in mind:

“FN A5 M Shooting System” : Google, page 1

“FN 303 Standard Launcher” : Google, page 2

“FN Tactical Police Shotgun (TPS) with Collapsible Stock” : Google, page 2

Now, this has to be a personal favorite. I’m not sure what caused this to happen, but it shows the fallibility of Google from time to time. At one point I wrote a post about Tom Brady and mentioned Giselle. At some other time, I wrote about Pookas. Somehow Google put these together and this is the result:

“Giselle transparent pink bra” : Google Images, page 1, image 4, you know some kid is really disappointed to have found this in the result:

Since some really strange things do appear in Google Hot Trends, I’m forced to write about things like wigeons and french vanilla ice cream at the same time. What range! This one has yielded some pretty high rankings.

“ice cream trends” : Google, page 3

“vanilla ice cream” : Google Images, page 3, which also yields another funny picture based on the search term:

“wigeons” : Google, page 2